
Arius (256-336 AD) was a Libyan Christian presbyter and ascetic and the founder of Arianism, a nontrinitarian school of Christianity which rejected the Trinity. His views were rejected at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, but his faith was spread to the Germanic tribes by the Gothic bishop Ulfilas.
Biography[]
Arius was born in Ptolemais, Cyrenaica, Roman Empire in 256 AD, and he came from a family of Berbers. He became a deacon under Bishop Meletius of Lycopolis and was excommunicated in 311 AD for supporting him, but he was re-admitted to the Christian communion in 313 AD and made presbyter of the Baucalis district of Alexandria. Arius would develop a new Christological doctrine known as "Arianism", which rejected the Holy Trinity and claimed that Jesus was the born (not begotten) son of God. In 325 AD, his views were condemned at the First Council of Nicaea. He was restored to the communion in 335 AD, and he died of a hemorrhage at the imperial palace in Constantinople at the age of 80.